Cahoon Museum shows off new trends in fiber art

By Barbara Clark

Thursday

Nov 8, 2018 at 3:43 PMNov 8, 2018 at 3:43 PM

Expect the unexpected, in an evocative new exhibit that’s just opened at the Cahoon Museum of American Art in Cotuit.

“Twisted, Twined, and Woven: Contemporary Fiber Art” invites visitors to share a look at how textile art is evolving into exciting new forms. Eight contemporary regional arts have submitted eye-popping fiber creations that according to the Cahoon’s director, Sarah Johnson, “are pushing the boundaries of tradition.”

Textile arts have thrived over many thousands of years, ever since humans moved beyond decking themselves out in animal skins and began developing the skill of turning cotton, linen, wool and other plant and animal fibers into useful and practical items for wear and warmth.

It’s our human nature to embellish, turning utility into art, and as we looped, spun, tied, wove and knit, humans began decorating and dyeing their fabrics and threads to express emotions, tell stories or assert identity, creating decorative art from the natural materials and stories of their surroundings.

Plenty of surprises are in store in the Cahoon’s main gallery, with multiple fabrics, methods and objects melding into beautiful, affecting works of art.

Get ready to be overlooked by an imposing seven-foot-tall freestanding black scorpion, constructed entirely of a mosaic of lace doilies, dyed black and stretched across a fragile looking frame. Its spindly legs give the creature a span of more than 20 feet at the base. In her exhibit biography, the scorpion’s creator, Jodi Colella (who refers to the giant as “she”), described how during a recent stay in Thailand she discovered a small, menacing black scorpion inhabiting her bathroom sink. She created a little replica of the invader, but found that her outsize reaction to the insect demanded a much bigger response – hence “Stinger,” who occupies the entire end of the gallery, too large to capture in one photo frame.

Johnson said that the sculpture arrived in several pieces, with the body delivered in a large sling. The delicate material combined with its size, she said, “infused [the artist’s] craft with power.”

“Devolve,” a feathery floor-to-ceiling hanging column (by sculptor Andy Mauery) that drifts with the breeze from each passerby, is fashioned from wavy strands of human hair, stitched together with intricate thread designs representing the lives of endangered animals – the artist’s rendition of what her biography calls our “interconnectedness with nature.”

Local artist Salley Mavor, well known for her relief sculptures illustrating children’s books, described that when she turned 60, she decided to use her needle-and-thread art “to bring the world in, instead of having it all be fantasy,” so she began creating works with more dramatic human and political themes. Here, her sculptural shadow box “Displaced” depicts a long line of migrant people as they make a trek toward sanctuary.

Practical everyday objects rise to artistic heights in baskets constructed of pine needles and raffia that, according to artist Elizabeth Whyte Schulze, “incorporate older elements in innovative ways,” often inspired by aboriginal imagery. Jacqueline Davidson, a weaver who lives on Deer Isle in Maine, has turned to the traditions of the lobster fishermen in her family to make layered art from knotted netting used in the fishing trade.

Anna Kristina Goransson, whose work is created from felted and dyed wool, contains dazzling colors and organic shapes in wall art that grabs the eye, from the spiky “Skin” to a “Beauty in Growth,” a display of crimson organic shapes that curl down onto the floor.

Hidden words sometimes provide the key to expressing an idea, and in this case “Praise for Life,” by Sarah Haskell, has an immediate impact. Ten framed works incorporate an adaptation of the Jewish Kaddish prayer, written over and over again and woven into the linen cloth inside each frame.

Intermingling stories draw the eye for a close-up look in two works by Diane Savona, whose grandparents immigrated here from Poland. Savona calls herself a “textile archaeologist,” and many textile fragments collected from multiple family sources over the years are sewn into the multi-hued “Stronger,” which from a distance forms the American flag. Her eloquent “Security Blanket” is a tapestry containing hundreds of tiny religious objects that enhance the stories of different cultures.

Learn more

“Twisted, Twined, and Woven: Contemporary Fiber Art” is on display in the main gallery at the Cahoon Museum of American Art, 4676 Falmouth Road (Route 28), Cotuit, through December 22. Museum hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Sunday 1 to 4. $10, $8 seniors and students, free to children under 12. More information at 508-428-7581; www.cahoonmuseum.org